As a die-hard West Wing fan (the original years, not the later years–I’m a purist), you can imagine my joy when I read that the cast reunited briefly to make a four-minute video commercial for getting out the vote in Michigan for one Bridget McCormack. Bridgit just happens to be the sister of Mary McCormack, who was one of the only good thing that came out of the later years of the series.

The commercial is a wonderful stroll down memory lane as it attempts to explain the importance of making sure voters fill out their entire ballot, including the “non-partisan section at the end”; in this case, it’s promoting one Bridget Mary McCormack, non-partisan candidate for the Michigan State Supreme Court.

As you can see, much is made about the concept that this part of the ballot is “non-partisan” and therefore in theory should be beyond politics. Sadly, you can bet that nobody involved in making the commercial thought it would be a good idea to let the viewers know that there are actually six candidates on the ballot (three Democrats and three Reublicans), or that Ms. McCormack is in fact enthusiastically endorsed by the Democrat Party of Michigan:

And even if you didn’t know that, all you’d have to do is to to her campaign site and see this screen to realize that she truly is a Democrat’s Democrat:

Ms. McCormack: if you’re aiming for the State Supreme Court, “fairness” should not be your concern: rule of law should be.

On the other hand, when your judicial philosophy is “Fairness Above All Else”, you’d be a shoo-in for the US Supreme Court when Justice Ginsberg retires… if only President Romney were a Democrat!

By now you have probably seen the photo of the midnight raid in which the maker of the film which is allegedly causing the “ruckus” in the Middle East was “politely” “requested” to “go downtown and answer a few questions”. The photo itself begs to be captioned, and this being the 21st century, voila, instant Quick Meme, entitled, “Defend the Constitution.”

All the captions pointedly call out the blatant disregard of the officials of our First Amendment rights (as far as I know, we don’t have any anti-blashpemy laws on the books… yet). But of all the images listed at the link, I think I found this one the most disturbing:

As I mentioned in a tweet yesterday, when there is gun violence, the Left blames guns and tries to quash the Second Amendment. This is simply the logical next step… An American diplomat is murdered, the Left blames a video and tries to quash the First Amendment.

Given the situation in the Middle East–four murdered American citizens, U.S. embassies and consulates attacked, embassy staffers desperately issuing an apologia for American values–one might think that Obama might settle down and do some actual Presidentin’, to calm the storm and slow the rising waters, so to speak.

But one would be wrong, of course. Charlie Sperling of the Washington Examiner highlighted an interesting quote from an interview Obama did Wednesday night with CBS. His statement make it clear that he is now trying to rewrite his administration’s initial reaction to the Arab “Sprung”.

“[The Embassy statement] didn’t come from me. It didn’t come from Secretary Clinton,” Obama said. “It came from folks on the ground who are potentially in danger. And my tendency is to cut those folks a little bit of slack when they’re in that circumstance rather than try to question their judgment from the comfort of a campaign office.” [Emphasis mine]

“From the comfort of a campaign office.” No, Mr. President, that would be Mitt Romney in a campign office.

You are the actual president and when disaster strikes, eyes turn to you in your current job (which you are trying so desperately to keep), regardless of whether you’d rather be on the links or schmoozing with a few rich limousine liberals and eating Waygu beef hors d’oeuvres instead of doing the actual hard work of taking proper care of the country.

Perhaps you wouldn’t have to try so hard if you’d actually man up and do the damn job, rather than being on a perpetual campaign.

So get your skinny butt out of your comfortable chair in your comfortable campaign office and do some real work for a change, instead of jetting off to Vegas.

You may get a kick from campaigns, but we don’t get a kick out of you… we’re just going to kick you out.

The U.S. Ambassador to Libya was murdered in the “turmoil” in Benghazi yesterday, along with another Consulate staffer and two Marines. The New York Times didn’t even bother to report this on its front page this morning, while the White House issued a statement from the President which read in part:

“I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi, which took the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens…”

If the Libyans aren’t careful, Obama might get outraged enough to send them a sternly-worded letter. I’m sure Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Infomation Officer Sean Smith, and the two heroic Marines who were slain will take comfort in that, as will their families.

Our Consulate attacked, our Ambassador murdered. Our embassy in Egypt attacked. I cannot fathom why these deeds are not considered acts of war against us. At the very least, President Strongly Condemn ought to immediately cut off all aid to both countries.

The real outrage is that apparently the Obama administration had information on the possiblity of attacks as early as June of this year, and did… nothing. No beefed up security, no strong statements warning against attacks. Nothing. The president was too busy desperately trying to keep his job to actually do his job.

If only Obama had some passion, some fire, some sympathy for those murdered yesterday. He might sound something like this: